Prosecutor: Ex-NFL player an 'arrogant bully'

SANTA ANA – An Orange County prosecutor portrayed a former NFL football player as an "arrogant bully" Tuesday who tried to create false alibi to cover his whereabouts for the time a Newport Beach millionaire was gunned down inside his luxury bayside home in 1994.

But "it's not an alibi," Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy insisted in his final arguments in the murder trial of former linebacker Eric Naposki.

Murphy told a jury that he does not believe that Naposki placed a phone call from a pay phone at Denny's Restaurant in Santa Ana at 8:52 p.m. on Dec. 15, 1994 – the evening William Francis McLaughlin, 55, was shot to death in the kitchen of his Balboa Coves home.

But even if Naposki made that call, it does not protect him from being the shooter who pumped six shots into McLaughlin's chest at about 9:10 p.m., Murphy said during his three-hour final argument over two days. Naposki still had sufficient time to drive from the Denny's to Newport Beach and commit the murder, the prosecutor insisted.

Naposki, who is now 44, is charged with his former girlfriend, Nanette Johnston, now 46, with murdering McLaughlin, who made a fortune in the health care industry, for financial gain. Johnston was living with the much-older McLaughlin in 1994 while carrying on affair with Naposki behind the millionaire's back.

Murphy contends that Johnston was named as a beneficiary of McLaughlin's life insurance, was also named in his will, and expected to be able to live in his beach house and gain ownership of a luxury car should he die. Murphy said Naposki and Johnston then planned to live together using the proceeds from the windfall she expected to receive from McLaughlin's death.

The prosecutor said the phony alibi is one piece of evidence that will lead the jury to convict Naposki of first-degree murder plus special circumstances. Johnston will be tried separately in November on similar charges.

Murphy also pointed the jury to other elements of his largely circumstantial case, including:

•Naposki lied to police originally and denied owning a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun, the same type of gun used by the killer.

•The killer used a newly-cut key from Ace hardware to gain access to McLaughlin's home, but it was stuck in the front door after the killer fled. The owner of the Tustin Ace Hardware testified Naposki had two new keys made a few months before the murder. Murphy contends that Johnston provided her key to the house for Naposki to copy.

•Newport Beach detectives recovered a notebook from Naposki's vehicle shortly after the murder that included letters and numbers that comprised the license plate for McLaughlin's Mercedes Benz, which he parked in the car of his Balboa Coves home. Murphy reminded the jury that Naposki claimed he never met McLaughlin and had never been to his bayside home.